In Continuum.

The Holiday

I'm so childish, a little bit wildish
With my rumdiddlyumdiddlyumdiddly, I'm so deep
Well I'm so garish, a little unfairish
The way I pick you up, and drop you in a heap

It is the first of October, and this is a special day that so many of us have already forgotten about. It was the single most important day in the year for me, back in those days, even more than my own birthday. But then again, I was the kind of kid who never bothered too much with my own birthday, never threw a single party to celebrate the next step I take to adulthood. I suppose, I realized the reality of growing older every year, and has been avoiding the actuality of my birthday ever since. But this day has been important to me in the past, craving for it every year and even the night before it happens. This day reminds me of how good it is to be a child, the rights that we have to be stupid, to be reckless, and to be careless. To those who have yet to guess what the significance is of the first of October, it is Children's Day for all the children around Singapore. So Happy Children's Day, for the younger readers out there who are still celebrating the event in school.

October the first is not the official date around the world, or so I have heard. Apparently, different countries have different dates of the year for Children's Day. Brazil celebrates it on the 12th of October, North Korea on the 1st of June, Taiwan on the 4th of April, etc. However, I am sure the meaning behind this special day differs little around the world, even in god-forsaken country like North Korea. It is a day to remind the children that they are still children, that they are still able to do all the stupid things that children do, and get away with it at the very end. Because children are children, they do not need to be rational about things, they do not need to care if their lives are going to be destroyed by their acts. I was that sort of kid in school, cutting into tabletops with my penknife, sneaking onto the rooftop of the school, crawling through holes in the fences on the perimeter of the school, breaking all the rules. But I was a child, a part of the population called "Children", and not yet the "Youths". I was able to do anything I wanted, and that was exactly what I did.

I'm so unfaithful, in fact I'm a plateful
I won't kiss her, but I'll stare her up all night
I'm a stormy little singer, an unstable little swinger
If you're coming, come prepared for a fight

My birthday happens to land on the 29th of June every year, and that is the second time of the year for me to feel depressed all over again, with the other being the first day of the year. I remember falling sick for four years in a row when I was younger on the first day of the year, and always believed it to be bad omen of sorts. I was a superstitious child, believing in whatever that my parents told me in the past. I avoided watermelon seeds because they told me that eating them will caused me to grow a watermelon on my forehead. I avoided pointing at the moon at night, because my father told me that the moon would come down to cut my ear. While I carefully plotted my way through my everyday lives with such fears in my mind, my parents looked on to their amusement and satisfaction. Something about lying to children makes them feel better about themselves I suppose, but that's just part and parcel of being young.

So falling sick on the first day of the year was a tradition for a while, and I would lie in my bed thinking about how bad the rest of the year is going to be. The same goes for my birthdays, because they were never eventful enough for me to look forward to. Growing older when I was a child meant that it was another year closer to the one whereby I have to give up all my toys and all the silly cartoons. It meant that I had to put away the toys into those cardboard boxes, switch off the television to spend more time with my homework, and all the things that little children are not supposed to do anymore, once they are considered to be teenagers. Find any pictures taken on a birthday party of any child in the world, and you are probably going to find their smiley faces looming before the birthday cake, with the glow of the candles dancing off his or her face, just before he blows the flames away. In their minds, they were probably thinking "Yes! The Nintendo Wii!", or "Yes! The PSP!". In my mind, I usually repeat the same line every year, moments before the candles go out," Oh, damn. Again?"

Well I'm so childish, a little bit wildish
With my rumdiddlyumdiddlyumdiddly, I'm so deep
Well I'm so uncaring, do far too much swearing
And if you read through my behaviour, you'll find I'm a creep

But you see, Children's Day took away all those when I was younger, when I was still allowed to celebrate Children's Day in school. Being three months after my birthday, it just feels like I am young all over again. Having two thresholds to cross in a year - the first day of the year and my birthday - it made me feel like I grew two years older in the span of 365 days. Children's Day was the day I was able to tell everybody that I was still a children, that reality has yet to catch up with me at all. On this day, I'd look forward to the performances in school, the times spent in school with friends to do anything but studying. Not to mention those idiotic performances by teachers who made a fool out of themselves, and the silly gifts they used to give out in class. I looked forward to those stationaries they used to give, even if they never worked. I was given a stationary set on the last Children's Day, with a red and a blue pen integrated into a ruler. Basically, at the center of the ruler was a piece of plastic that had holes on either side of it. On top of the plastic was the name of the school, and the pens would fit into the holes on either side. It was a pretty neat gift, but my gift never worked. Despite that, I still kept it with me till this day, to remind me of the things that once was.

In high school, we didn't have Children's Day anymore. I suppose as you become thirteen years old, you are no longer considered to be a child, though mentality-wise we were all as stupid as ever. A year of difference at that age is not going to have a great impact on our mental maturity, but that is how they classified us into categories back then. The children and the youth, with the latter being the group of youngsters from thirteen and beyond. Sure, there is still a day dedicated to the youths in Singapore called the Youth Day, but it's not like we receive gifts on this day, or get a school holiday for no apparent reasons either. We toil in the neighborhoods to collect old newspapers, go onto the streets to collect donations for the old, and basically become slaves of the country for th very first time before national service. They say that the Youth Day is to celebrate our youth, but they left out the crucial part of the day that involved the free labor hours on the streets, facing unfriendly pedestrians and dangerous traffic. So it has been nine years since I celebrated the last Children's Day, and I miss those days - really. There are times, when I want to be stupid all over again.

I'll play a stormer, yet in the corner
I'll be grumpy on my own, like I don't care
I'm a stormy little singer, an unstable little swinger
With a big rip, in the arsehole of my flares

There should be a public referendum as to whether or not we should have holiday dedicated to the under-graduates in various universities in Singapore. Technically speaking, the kind of things we do are not so much different from the kind of things that the primary school students are doing. We are all studying under the same education system, we are all given homeworks and projects every once in a while, and we all hate our teachers to the core. I think there should be a holiday dedicated to us, the people who are being suffocated under the university education system. Compared to us, the primary school system is not just a walk in the park, but a nap in the park on a picnic mat under a great tree. We are toiling in the construction site with our construction helmets, and a serious shortage of shovels and pick axes.

The perfect gift for the Under-Graduate Day would be a survival kit for the rest of the semester. It would include a sanity stick, that works like the pregnancy stick in a way. You test your sanity by putting the stick into your ear like a thermometer, then it will give you a numerical reading as to how crazy you are at the moment of measurement. Not to mention the packets of three-in-one coffee powders in the pack, or tea for those who prefers it as their weapon of choice to battle the sandman. The pack is also going to include bottles of vitamins, from A to whatever alphabets it take to survive the semester, not to mention a user handbook, with survival tips from past students of the school. Other items in the gift pack would include a Sudoku puzzle book, a wig - so that when you tear your hair off your head, you won't look so ugly the next day, a pack of cigarettes - we all need that every once in a while, a lighter - for obvious reasons. Be the first one hundred students to receive this limited edition survival kit, and you will stand a chance to win the battery powered voodoo doll. You can slot the picture of your most hated lecturer into the face and stab it with the needle provided in the kit. The doll will scream in pain and agony, the fun is limitless. Batteries not included.

Well I'm so childish, a little bit wildish
With my rumdiddlyumdiddlyumdiddly, I'm so mad
I'm so truthful, a little bit bruteful
But in sooth I know not, why I am so sad

So until that day comes, Happy Children's Day, for the heck of it. I don't suppose it is ever too late to be a child again. Like they always say, there is a child in all of us, even the oldest living human on Earth. We all like to be reckless once in a while, throw tantrums without any reasons, and break the rules and get away with it. We can have our own Children's Day celebrations in our own unique, special ways. I say screw what the country tells you, they shouldn't have the right to dictate when our Children's Day should be. I say that we should have Children's Day, everyday. And it begins right now, let's get retarded.

I try my bestest, well as far the restest
Well it's just stuff that comes out wrong, and gets misunderstood
I'm a dandy little dreamer, a doctored misdemeanor
A didactic destiny schemer, bare with me if you would